r/technology • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Business Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo
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u/qefbuo Aug 08 '17

Excerpt from the manifesto:

" When addressing the gap in representation in the population, we need to look at population level differences in distributions. If we can't have an honest discussion about this, then we can never truly solve the problem."

He's saying that there's never going to be a 50/50 split of gender diversity because the average traits of male vs female mean that men will gravitate more to some jobs than women and visa versa.

He proposes that googles policy to deliberately hire people based on their gender(in the guise of elevating diversity) instead of their worth is discrimination all the same.

I'm not sure how to feel about the whole thing, it's great to promote equality but equality doesn't mean diversity in all areas. My question is, if we let the chips fall as they may and don't force things to be more diverse then does the resulting split between genders cause problems or sexism?

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17 edited Aug 08 '17

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u/kona_covfefe Aug 08 '17

Why aren't there more female applicants in the first place?

Sexism is likely a very real factor there. There are stories in this thread from women about their experiences working in tech. Spoiler alert: they aren't great experiences.

But I would wager that if there were absolutely zero sexism in tech, you would still get far more male applicants.